oO F145C0 Oo <fiasco@echo.sound.net> writes:
Apparently the US government is planning on starting up its V-chip program again, which will allow public/cable TV to be censored at will. What does everyone thing about this ploy?
And whats next? Chips in my radio, to prevent music, or a chip in my phone to make sure i dont call anyone bad? The V-chip is just as much a privacy/1st amendment violation as the clipper chip is/was. I believe the worst part of the V-chip plan, is to force all new TV's manufactured or imported to the US, to have this new chip. Could this chip even be part of a Chinese lottery?
As I understand it, the basic concept behind the V-Chip is to allow selective blocking of material a particular viewer might find offensive based on content information transmitted along with the program. As long as the program material itself is transmitted unaltered, and there are multiple non-governmental providers of content descriptions catering to the spectrum of human likes and dislikes, this sounds like ideal Cypherpunk technology. Concerned Parent can set the V-Chip to read from the Children's Television Workshop content service, available for a small monthly fee, and be certain that graphic violence and sex are pixelated on screen, and that bleep words that the child might practice in front of Grandma are garbled. Mr. Islamic Fanatic can filter out all blasphemy against Allah and his one and only prophet, pork commercials, and women showing more than 100 square centimeters of exposed epidermis. Uncle Ernie can program his set to beep loudly when shots of nude adolescent boys are about to appear in foreign films. Everyone has a filter which they can tune for their own viewing and listening enjoyment, and a free market system of content description services will cater to every conceivable taste. What are the dangers of this new technology? First, the government might want only one description of content, which it controls. My notion of what is offensive probably differs greatly from that of Jesse Helms, for instance. Second, once content descriptions become available, they might be used to control content at the transmission end, not the viewing end. Congress could mandate that the same information that Uncle Ernie uses to alert himself to "interesting" scenes, be used at the transmitting end to pixelate the same material. V-Chips for consumer products are our friend. V-Chips for broadcasters and publishers are not. It should be noted that the V-Chip is currently vaporware, and exists only in the minds of politicians. There probably will never be an actual "V-Chip", just a little additional software in our already heavily computerized televisions, radios, and personal computers. One desirable side effect of the V-Chip. It will probably have the effect of extinguishing hysterical reactions to nudity, sex, bleep words, and special effects violence, by allowing people to gradually increase what they are exposed to as they become tolerant of it. Sort of the opposite of aversion therapy. Perhaps in the distant future, the population will wonder what the thing was ever used for, and why anyone bothered to develop it. Just a few random thoughts... -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd@netcom.com $ via Finger. $